FILM
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Triangle of lost souls
Remember wfieri music was fun?
it stiff is
Another Michael Cunningham novel
finds a satisfying onscreen home
by
G ary M orris
ichael Mayers screen
adaptation of Michael
Cunninghams (Flesh
and Blood, The Hours)
bittersweet novel is already infa
mous for showing Colin Farrell’s
allegedly huge prick and then
cutting it from the release print
for being “too distracting.”
But A Home at the End of the
World is so gtxxl it doesn’t need
that kind of PR trickery. This
wrenchingly emotional tale of
love and loss centered on a beau
tiful naif can stand on its own
considerable merits.
Cunningham wrote the high
ly condensed screenplay, which
opens in the trippy late ’60s,
Despite cutting Colin Farrell’s penis from A Home at the End
when 9-year-old Bobby Morrow
of the World , it’s still a dam fine movie
hero-worships his hippie older
brother, who dies in a sudden, horrific accident
Unexpected, too, is the Bobby-Jonathan
the first of many tragedies that tear the people
bond, which become the film’s core and
Bobby loves from his life.
heart— gay and straight boy longing for an
emotional intimacy that doesn’t necessarily
Next comes 1974. Bobby is 15 and a loner.
When his parents die, too, he drifts into the
preclude sex even after they’re supposedly set
lives of a neighbor family, the Glovers, and par in their adult hetero and homo roles.
ticularly his classmate Jonathan. They share
As a Broadway director, Mayer’s skill with
joints, musical taste and considerable secret
actors pays off handsomely. Erik Smith superbly
late-night sex play.
incarnates 15-year-old Bobby, bristling with
But, like all parties, this one ends when
emotion even in such dicey scenes as the boys’
Jonathan (Dallas Roberts), now 18, moves to New
mutual masturbation. And Farrell is simply a
York. Bobby (Farrell) eventually join his pal, who
revelation as the confused, loving, wounded
lives with eccentric hat designer Clare (Robin
man-child. His nuanced performance shows a
Wright Penn). Despite being gay, Jonathan is
range hitherto undeveloped.
deeply involved with Clare, even considering hav
Roberts hits the mark as the adult Jonathan,
ing a kid with her (when he isn’t busy tricking).
and Spacek has never been better (which is say
An ever-more-complex and confusing trian
ing a lot), suggesting vistas of emotion at a
gle ensues as the three misfits form a makeshift
glance. Wright Penn registers strongly as Clare,
family. Negative emotions erupt as the delicate
as tragic in her own way as her two “boys" whose
balance threatens to collapse and alliances shift.
depth of feeling for each other trumps all else.
What drives Home are its unexpected rela
Mayer, in his film directorial debut,
tionships. Depressive middle-aged mom Alice
misjudges a few of the scenes— a Grand
Glover (Sissy Spacek) bonds with 15-year-old
Canyon sequence is surely unnecessary, and
Bobby in a brilliant scene where the two share
viewers may feel that the A ID S subplot is a hit
a joint, and he instantly divines the loneliness
worn. But these are minor complaints about a
behind her cheery, frozen smile. (One o f the
major cinematic success. The film’s themes of
film’s charms is that Bobby is, throughout,
the centrality of embracing love wherever you
can find it and coming to terms with its tragic
naive enough not to be hampered by social
constraints against questionable relationships.)
fragility are brilliantly brought home. J H
M
Growing pains
by
A
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F .v c r y T u e s d a y Nigiht
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The Mudge Boy transcends
typical coming-of-age fare
Every W ednesday
J im R adosta
small-town teen (Emile Hirsch) struggles
with his sexuality and his mother’s recent
death in the quirky yet disturbing
The Mudge Boy from wnter/director
Michael Burke, playing Aug. 6 to 12 at
Hollywood Theatre.
D m can Mudge is a strange fruit
who wears his mom's fur coat to
M
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bed and forms closer bonds with
his pet chicken than with his
friends or family. The object of
his affection is Perry (Tom
Guiry), a neighbor bully who
brags about his sexual conquests
with girls while slowly catching
on that Duncan would like to be
more than friends.
Meanwhile, Duncan’s distant
father (Richard Jenkins, a reliable
character actor who’s appeared in several Farrelly
and Coen Bros, films) tries in vain to butch up
the boy by giving him chores and burning
the mother’s clothes. This all might sound
like standard coming-of-age fare, but
Burke adds a few unpredictable touches to
the story: I don’t wanna give anything
away, so let’s just say cross-dressing and
fowl play are involved.
Hirsch (The Dangerous Lives of
Altar Boys) shows tremendous
promise with a performance that
accurately captures the gangly awk
wardness of a boy who doesn’t fit in
y with his male counterparts. The abrupt
ending is somewhat unsatisfying, but
only because 1 wanted to spend more
time observing these captivating
characters. JH
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